raif’s random rants…

on february 19th, fortune magazine ran this article about facebook.

overall it had some good observations, decent insights and asked some interesting questions. but nothing that hasn’t been discussed elsewhere. all in all it did a good job of providing a state-of-the-nation on the fast growing social networking site that now has 175 million users.

my beef with the article was the following chart.

the problem is that comparing facebook to any of these technologies is NOT a fare comparison at all.

 each of these technologies had two main barriers to adoption:

first is the upfront and the ongoing cost to the user. to get a telephone, you had to pay the connection fees and then incur monthly fees - flat AND usage based. same with cellular phones. first cellphones were ridiculously expensive to buy and the rate plans were outrageous. similar with a tv. even now a tv costs hundreds of dollars. and to get any utility out of it you either need cable or a dvd collection or both. same with the ipod. cost hundreds of dollars and then more for buying mp3s.

facebook doesn’t cost anything to start and there are no ongoing costs either. other then you’re time.

the second major barrier each of these technologies had was around infrastructure. back in 1876 when supposedly telephones were available, it didn’t mean that you could just get it just because you were ready to pay for it. you had to wait for the infrastructure to roll out to your area (the wires etc.) similar issue with ipod. you needed an internet connection, and fast enough computer before you could get meaningful utility out of an ipod. also, not sure where ipod would be without itunes…

facebook did not face any of these infrastructure challenges either.

reaching 175 million users in 5 years is not shabby at all. however, that doesn’t imply anything about how it compares to the telephone, the television, the ipod or the cellular phone.

overall, a pointless comparison offering no insights whatsoever. fortune mag. FAIL.

yikes.

starting is easy. finishing is hard. to keep going is harder.

that’s how i feel of this small piece of web real estate called raif.com. hard to believe i haven’t done a single post since august.

besides launching carsala.com, hiring, moving, holidays and many other lame excuses, what’s really happened is called twitter.

twitter has officially replaced my need for ranting, writing, and exposure.

however, lately i’ve been wanting to put together pieces that require more thought than 140 characters. which i believe is a key strength and weakness of twitter. the quickness and immediacy of the 140 characters is very powerful. however, it does lend itself to way too many retweets without commentary or insights, half-baked thoughts and just weak arguments.

as people flock to twitter and the doomsday of blogging is reported everywhere else, i think that there will be a wave of people coming back to blogging for things that they just can’t quite fit into 140 characters.

true, twitter has changed self publishing forever. however, i do believe that both blogging and tweeting will have their place in anyone’s toolbox who believes they have something worth sharing.

sometimes starting a company is like playing house… especially when you’re setting up your office.

both my co-founder tyler and i have always felt strongly that the environment we set up now will play a significant role in shaping the culture and the values of the company we’re building at carsala. we are also both pretty frugal to a fault, so we started off for our interior decoration with a very (VERY) limited budget.

we ended up with some pretty cool looking desks with trestles and somewhat comfortable chairs, each under $100.

next challenge was to find some art for the walls.

my pick for the technology and marketing room was the photograph above by renowned photojournalist w. eugene smith called “dream street”. i felt it was very appropriate for a handful of people who have set out to change the single largest retail segment of the US economy (44M used cars are sold every year, representing $365 billion).

the entrepreneurial spirit is really one with the spirit of the dreamer… the pursuit of  creation of something out of nothing… the pursuit of something better and greater…

“dream street” embodies this entrepreneurial spirit - the spirit we have at carsala.

just yesterday, as I was trying to snap out of my usual 3pm crash down with a double espresso, I was thinking how great afternoon naps are. I even thought how great it could be to constitute a mandatory siesta at carsala… it would be a tough sell in a north american work environment and even a tougher sell with our investors… so i decided to shelf that project for now, or at least at a later time when i could pull it off…

as i’d stopped daydreaming about napping, i came across this in the latest springwise newsletter: barcelona hilton reserves rooms for a siesta. now that’s an innovative idea that should be embraced in north american hotels. especially one that is preferably within walking distance of the carsala offices ;)

living in berkeley, it is not too uncommon to find yourself surrounded by priuses (or is it prii?). i’ll bet anything that the prius per capita quotient in berkeley must be one of the highest in the country.

now, i am happy that a major car manufacturer is behind a car technology that significantly improves mileage compared to most other new cars. however, before we celebrate the prius as the savior invention of the 21st century, we have to put it in some context and take it for what it is.  my main goal with this post is to demonstrate how little even a leap such as the prius actually has accomplished. it’s a tiny step towards the right direction - emphasis on tiny. we have to do a lot more.

firstly, why is the prius so popular? there are countless debates online between the honda prius and it’s closest follower the honda civic hybrid. in terms of mileage, they are pretty much comparable. most comparisons come down to the different features available in the two cars. however, in terms of sales prius is the clear winner. my theory for this is that prius is it’s own car. when you drive a prius, everyone who sees you knows that you drive a hybrid and therefore must be saving the world. however, if you’re driving a civic hybrid, you can’t really tell that it’s a hybrid other than the really small tag in the very back. i think that this need of acknowledgment plays a big part in consumer behavior. major marketing blunder in my opinion on honda’s part. they should have given the civic hybrid a distinctive body shape - and separate model even. in a way, it is the same consumer behavior and needs that make people buy a hummer with $5000 rims.

now let’s examine the gas mileage. according to toyota, the 2008 prius gets 48 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway. impressive yes. record breaking mileage? far from it. The 1984-87 Honda CRX got 41 mpg in the city and 50 mpg on the highway. yes that’s the honda crx from over 20 years ago.

you think 20 years is impressive? how about 30? as Saul Griffith pointed out in his presentation at this years foo camp, the Citroen CV2 did even better…

the 1974 Citroen CV2 got 50.9 mpg - not too shabby.

in addition to the great mileage, the CRX and the CV2 did not have batteries that will have to be disposed of every 8 years  which represent a significant cost to both the owners and the manufacturers.

so, if the prius is not good enough, what do we do? how will you get to work? well a bicycle is probably the best. however, as someone pointed out at foo camp, if you were to bike to work everyday, your lifespan would probably increase by 5-10 years which would dramatically increase your overall carbon footprint on earth… so if you do bike to work everyday, make sure to pick up smoking as your personal carbon offset…

hard to believe that it’s been over 3 months since i’ve posted on my blog.

it’s a shame. but i’ll make an attempt at an excuse:

in the last three months, along with my co-founder Tyler Elliston, we’ve been ridiculously busy founding and raising seed funding for carsala - an innovative service that will revolutionize how people buy cars. we will make the official press release soon but i’m thrilled to report that we have some top notch vc’s in the mix that positions us beautifully for the future of our company. we’ve recruited some brilliant people that are already busy building the product which should go into private beta this fall.

stay tuned for more frequent updates as we build this great company…